Organizing files in Windows Explorer

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I have always used windows explorer to organize my files. I am a photographer and am constantly needing to rearrange the order of images and rename them. Now that I have windows 7, I find it won’t let me move files around. I don’t use My Pictures–I use folders with custom names on the hard drive Is there a way to get it to let me organize my files?.

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I also have pictures, and various other files, in various locations on the hard drive, and I have no problems with moving, copying or renaming them. Perhaps if you gave a concrete example of something that Windows 7 won’t let you, it would help use resolve the problem.

Also, which version of Windows 7? Home Premium, Prof, Ultimate?

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Are you using the Libraries to look at your pictures folder? These are just a pointers to the real folders which are located in “User Name”, My Pictures. You can set these folders up, arrange them any way you want to, rename them, etc.

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Windows 7 64 bit professional. In a folder, I try to drag and drop an image thumbnail to re order the images. That is , if they are, say, 1,2,3, and I want them to be 1,3,2 it won’t let me drag 3 to the position between 1 and 2. Instead of moving the file it shows a circle with a line through it to indicate that this can’t be done.
I’m not using libraries–I have 2 hard drives and I am using the second one which is not the C drive.

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Windows 7 64 bit professional. In a folder, I try to drag and drop an image thumbnail to re order the images. That is , if they are, say, 1,2,3, and I want them to be 1,3,2 it won’t let me drag 3 to the position between 1 and 2. Instead of moving the file it shows a circle with a line through it to indicate that this can’t be done.
I’m not using libraries–I have 2 hard drives and I am using the second one which is not the C drive.

Unfortunately Windows 7 has removed the ability to drag and drop icons within a folder, although that functionality still exists on the desktop.

Don’t ask me why!

Edit: I’ve found this thread over on MS Social which may help (have a look at the last post)

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/c13bc523-a706-406d-a188-be571e39e435

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If I understand you correctly, you are looking at the folder using Windows Explorer and you have the folder open in one of the icon view, such as Large Icons. And you are trying to reorder the images in that view. Is that correct?

I ask because as I try to do this the drag-and-drop is not happening but I do not see the red circle with line icon.

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The method now seems to be to name everything so that it can be sorted in details view. The sub-sorts are pretty detailed and the number of detail headers that can be placed on the column header line is exstensive but…manual drag and drop sorts in 7 seem to be 10-4 and out the door.

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Thanks Ian. That is very useful.

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I am in the same position as you, but in a different sense: I am awash in photo organizers and previewers and am trying to settle on one or two that best suits my purposes. This is strictly for organizing, not editing.

First you already have Windows Media Center, which includes ‘photos’. Tell it where to look, and it might surprise you.

Something I went crazy looking for was a viewer for Kodak PCD format files. What should it be but the ne plus ultra of freeware?

IrfanView

That program has everything but the kitchen sink. It is an essential no matter what else you have. Even certain top editing programs acknowledge the plug-ins that go with it (as a separate free download).

Google Picasa is both free and excellent for certain purposes, including organizing (and display, slideshows, desktops, etc.). It has superb displays. (A word of caution, especially if you have a lot of duplicates: it will search everywhere and everything for photos if you let it.)

To move out of freeware, Ashampoo Photo Commander is available free for their early versions and fifty bucks for their latest (within the past month, I think). If you get the early version and register it, chances are you may be offered a deal on the latest.

I also have Adobe Bridge, which is pretty high-end (I guess Adobe Light Table is higher), but I still haven’t figured out what best suits my present purposes. If you have any version of Bridge, it may be worth a fortune for your present purposes, and if you simply have to have it, I suggest CS4 (which includes 64-bit Photoshop).

That might give you some ideas. Oh yes, you might check out the forum on Graphics/Multimedia (which I confess I didn’t check myself before posting).

Edited to add that this is really a cataloguing problem, and I think it should be treated as such. It shouldn’t matter where the files are (within reason).

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If you do not like Picasa, I suggest Xnview. It’s very lightweight, has many customizable options and an interface that is much more modern than Irfanview’s. It’s free and actively updated.

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I use a free image viewer called Faststone which I think is the best out there.

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I like to sort my pictures into folders by date taken. See if this helps:

Look at this batch file that should be self explanatory. To use it copy as anyname.bat and place it or a shortcut to it on your desktop. Go to the first reference at the bottom and download and install exiftool. Check that the batch agrees with the exiftool location and change as necessary.Then just drop a folder of pictures onto the batch or the shortcut..
————————————————————————
: Photos to Dir.bat by Eric
: 02/03/10 Rev 02/05/10

: Drop a folder containing photos into this batch or copy photos from camera into “1” or copy containing folder and rename “1”
: Run this Batch if not using “drop”
: Result is New folders “YYYY-MM-DD” inside folder dropped or named “1” with originals unchanged

@Echo off

Setlocal

If “%~1” EQU “” (Goto Skip) ELSE (Set Base=%~1)

Set Tool=”C:Program Filesexiftool-8.09exiftool(-k).exe”

Start “” /wait %Tool% -o dummy/ -d “%Base%%%Y-%%m-%%d” “-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" "%Base%"

Exit

:Skip
Echo.
Echo *** No Data Supplied – Drop a Photo Folder on the Batch ***
Echo.
pause

Exit

: following is expanded command for reference
: Start "" /wait "C:Program Filesexiftool-8.09exiftool(-k).exe" -o dummy/ -d "C:/Users/Eric/Desktop/1/%%Y-%%m-%%d" "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" C:UsersEricDesktop1

: following URLs are for reference
: http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/filename.html
: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/filename.html#codes

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I have always used windows explorer to organize my files. I am a photographer and am constantly needing to rearrange the order of images and rename them. Now that I have windows 7, I find it won’t let me move files around. I don’t use My Pictures–I use folders with custom names on the hard drive Is there a way to get it to let me organize my files?.

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Hi Rebecca;

Both my wife an I teach and use Photoshop Elements for Organizing and editing. Actually my wife is a Photoshop CS power user. We have tried Bridge and other “organizers”, but the Photoshop Elements Organizer is the best. I cringe when I read that you are renaming photos and trying to rearrange them. I have been there and won’t use Windows or Picasa for this feature.

If you use the PSE Organizer, you can put multiple labels on each photo, you can search on the labels, and you can create special project folders. They call them “collections” or now they are called “albums.” Within an album you can drag the photos in to any order you like. In the main photo catalog or photo index (they also call it the “PhotoBrowser”) all photos are represented by a thumbnail that is an electronic card like in an old fashioned card catalog, except, once you have listed the photos in the catalog, they are listed in the digital creation date. Windows lists them in the modified date order. You are never really moving the photos,just creating links to different groups. It really works well.

But once they are listed you will soon discover that you no longer care what the file name are or their folder locations. All photos in all folders are now viewed in one virtual folder, the Photo Browser. If you need to “export” a batch of photos to someone, you can select the photos in the browser, and then batch rename those photos to whatever specification you like and do other batch modifications on the fly.

We have been using and teaching this product for about seven years. We have over 13,000 photos in our catalog. There is no need to have a his and hers catalog. It is very easy to archive the photos, it is very easy to backup and/or move the entire library of photos and catalog details. Within the Photo Browser you have access to the metadata. You can add audio notes to each photo. You can add text notes to each photo. You can easily modify the digital creation dates of one or a hundred photos all at once. The Organizer offers instant full screen or side by side previews.

If you are interested you can get free full working trial downloads from Adobe. If you are on a budget, you can get licensed copies of older versions from Amazon. Version 6 will work with Windows 2000 or later and only needs 512mb ram. Version 7 or 8 require 1.0gb of ram or more and Windows XP or later OS.

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If you are interested you can get free full working trial downloads from Adobe. If you are on a budget, you can get licensed copies of older versions from Amazon. Version 6 will work with Windows 2000 or later and only needs 512mb ram. Version 7 or 8 require 1.0gb of ram or more and Windows XP or later OS.

First, this looks like exactly like what I want, and to my shock and horror, I already have but didn’t think to try. I just hope it doesn’t conflict with CS4.

Second, and this came up recently in a thread in Hardware, bundled software can sometimes pay for the hardware it was bundled with, or nearly so. I have Elements 6, complete with serial number, that came bundled with my Wacom (Bamboo Fun) tablet. (It came with some other bundled software as well.) I know my tablet is far from the latest, and bundles change, but for anyone considering purchasing the software I suggest they take a look at what is available from Wacom first.

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Back to Rebecca Lane’s problem of 2010-4-2:
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“I have always used windows explorer to organize my files. I am a photographer and am constantly needing to rearrange the order of images and rename them. Now that I have windows 7, I find it won’t let me move files around. I don’t use My Pictures–I use folders with custom names on the hard drive Is there a way to get it to let me organize my files?.”
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Steven – Support EngineerMicrosoft Support, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals

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The feature you are looking for has been renamed to Sort By:, and is no longer in the View portion of the right click menu. Now you simply right click, Highlight Sort By, and choose the options you want to organize by.
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Hope that helps, look forward to hearing back from you.
Steven
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think
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URL for this is: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/c13bc523-a706-406d-a188-be571e39e435

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I’ve just noticed that Windows Explorer can do Primary and Secondary sorting.

Go to a folder of files. Then, at the top right of the main file display pane, there is an “Arrange-by” pull-down box where you can select e.g. Author, Date Modified, Tag, Type, Name. This is the primary level of sort. Then, if you go to the View menu, choose the Sort-by menu option, and you can then specify what you want as a secondary sort field. This includes things such as Name, Author, Tag, Size and “More”, which has loads of fields (which look as if they include the EXIF fields). Pretty cool.

I also use FastStone viewer too. I think it’s a brilliant program, one of the most intuitive ones I’ve used. It just seems as if when you want to do something, you think of the sensible way to do it, try it, and it works. I use it for batch renaming, I’ve not found anything as good for this.

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I’ve just noticed that Windows Explorer can do Primary and Secondary sorting.

Go to a folder of files. Then, at the top right of the main file display pane, there is an “Arrange-by” pull-down box where you can select e.g. Author, Date Modified, Tag, Type, Name. This is the primary level of sort. Then, if you go to the View menu, choose the Sort-by menu option, and you can then specify what you want as a secondary sort field. This includes things such as Name, Author, Tag, Size and “More”, which has loads of fields (which look as if they include the EXIF fields). Pretty cool.

Exactly loads of fields there, Using what Win gave you, there is so much under the hood if you just take a bit of time to discover it.
Me I use Win Explorer and make it do what I want.

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Folder fanatics might enjoy a visit (or purchase) at Foldermarker, which has a free version as well as a trial of the full version.

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It appears that the target for the link referenced several times in this thread has been changed or removed.

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